Zerocoin is a cryptocurrency that fully implements the Zerocoin protocol which enables people to have complete financial anonymity on the blockchain. Although all the other cryptocurrencies claim to ensure anonymous payments, Zerocoin brings privacy to the next level. It makes sure that all data related to both senders and recipients is undecodable and unreadable. By using cryptographic techniques, Zerocoin makes all transactions untraceable so that everyone can transfer coins without any risk of his identity being revealed. The Zero-knowledge proof protocol allows that all personal information is hidden and cannot be related to any specific person.

Zerocoin was firstly proposed by professor Matthew D. Green and graduate students Ian Miers and Christina Garman of the Johns Hopkins University as an extension to the bitcoin protocol that will improve the security and privacy on the blockchain network. The project was implemented into an actual cryptocurrency by Poramin Insom and Gary Le that started Zerocoin on the 28th of September 2016. Although initially planned to be used in the Bitcoin network, Zerocoin can also be implemented into any other cryptocurrency thus increasing its level of privacy. Zerocoin offers an uncrackable mathematical guarantee that any transaction conducted will be 100% anonymous.

In order to make more clear what Zerocoin actually does, here is some basic information about the privacy problems that Bitcoin has and the way they were solved. Bitcoin uses a decentralised peer-to-peer network in which there is no single entity that approves transactions. Because of that, every payment that is being made is recorded on a public ledger which anybody can access. Of course, no real names are stored, instead, public keys or addresses are used that do not have any connection with the personalities of the sender and the receiver. People can even create numerous addresses to make sure they are not being tracked. However, research shows that with a detailed analysis of a person’s payment habits as well as the information external to the blockchain such as a postal address, for instance, it is absolutely possible to trace anyone’s transactions on the network.

What Zerocoin actually does is to enable users to convert their non-anonymous Bitcoins into anonymous Zerocoins. Users can then send the coin to other users or rearrange their money in any way as long as it remains the same total value. If they want to, people can also convert Zerocoins back into Bitcoins and exchange them for other currencies. Similar to other cryptocurrencies, Zerocoin can also be mined and earned. So, if you are concerned about your privacy and are eager to test how this innovative currency is working, download Zerocoin’s software and enjoy your full anonymity.